L'Or�al Fashion Week Fall kicked off this week, offering a showcase of both established and emerging Canadian fashion design talent.

For four days, designers from across Canada will present their Fall/Winter 2007 collections, including Arthur Mendon�a from Toronto, Paul Hardy from Calgary and Mackage from Montreal.

Produced by the Fashion Design Council of Canada, a non-profit organization that works to promote the fashion industry in Canada, L'Or�al Fashion Week was formerly known as Toronto Fashion Week.

For 13 years, the event has been the premier event for Canada's established designers, as well as a showcase for the exciting designs of emerging Canadian talent, and even for retail brands such as Fairweather.

"I don't think there would be a Canadian fashion industry without L'Oreal Fashion Week," the Fashion Design Council of Canada's Robin Kay told Canada AM Monday.

"The buyers come, the media come. And that's what we need to do in this country is really excite our consumers that we can include Canada in our fashion wardrobe."

Kay says that for too long, most Canadians didn't realize Canada even had a fashion industry.

"And it's not as if we're missing a chromosome here," she joked to CTV.ca. "We have so many designers and so many consumers."

"And for fashion not be recognized in Canada is tragic. It's tragic for our culture, it's tragic for the fashion community and it doesn't portray us in the light that we are already perceived in by other nations."

"So this just creates a fair global playing field because we are looked upon globally as a very important part in the fashion picture."

Through a series of fashion runway shows and installations, this season's L'Or�al Fashion Week will present 30 designers, including the renowned labels of Comrags, Andy Th�-Anh, and David Dixon.

There'll even be a collection from Joe Fresh Style, the line of affordable fashion available at Great Canadian Superstore grocery stores. The line is designed by ubiquitous Canadian designer Joe Mimran, the brains behind Club Monaco and the now dearly departed Caban.

Mimran's wife, Kimberley Newport, also has a line at the show, Pink Tartan, a collection of contemporary and feminine sportswear. Pink Tartan is sold in Canada and the U.S. at Saks Fifth Avenue and specialty boutiques.

Once again, there will also be a collection from Arthur Mendon�a, who burst onto the fashion scene in Canada about five years ago.

He tells CTV.ca that since he began showing his collections at Fashion Week, he's had a lot more exposure, which has translated into more sales.

"I love the intensity of it, the excitement of working with other people and I enjoy the staging," he says.

"I've always said there's no better way to show collection than on a live person."

The collections presented at L'Oreal Fashion Week are more ready to wear and less about being conceptual than similar shows in Milan or New York, Mendonca says. But they're certainly not lacking in diverse originality.

"We have a very international flavour, probably because there are so many different cultures here, especially in Toronto. You see so many different styles and cultures represented.

"For example, after my show, there's Fashion Nation, which is a native collection. And that's something you don't really see anywhere else."

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo says it's time for Ontario to recognize fashion as part of the province's definition of culture. She is introducing a resolution to broaden the mandate of the Ontario Ministry of Culture to include fashion design.

"We are simply asking, and this seems so obvious, ...(that) fashion be considered part of the culture portfolio," said DiNovo, who also serves as the culture critic.

"We want to see Toronto at the same status as Milan one day. And to do that, we need to start fostering our young talent."